The boom in infrastructure projects is driving steel demand in India as the country prepares for national elections to be held in 2019. Steel consumption in fiscal 2018-2019 is likely to continue at an estimated 4-5% annual rise, according to a survey of mill officials and traders.

During April-October, India’s overall finished steel output rose 5% on the year to 69.6 million mt, even as overall steel consumption lagged behind at 56.7 million mt, at a growth rate of 4.2% year on year.

President Trump has uncorked yet another controversy over energy vs the environment and it promises to be a heavyweight battle.

The White House budget proposal includes a revenue line of almost $2 billion from selling oil and gas leases in the richly oil-prospective northeastern coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.

When Gazprom officially launched plans to build the second Nord Stream gas pipeline system to Germany in June 2015, the accusations that Gazprom’s main aim was to increase its dominance over European gas came thick and fast.

In January, the price of oil was moldering — below $30/b on occasion. Given Russia’s dependence on oil and gas revenue, the budgetary outlook was bleak. Hillary Clinton was going to be elected as the next president of the United States. Sanctions against Russia, imposed over its role in the Ukraine conflict, would continue, and the EU would further frustrate Russian plans for major new gas pipelines and its goal of a total Ukrainian bypass.

Moving toward the brink of war is about as serious as a geopolitical relationship can get — and that is where Moscow and Ankara found themselves after NATO member Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet on the border with Syria on November 24 last year.

First Nations tribes in Canada and the US have started flexing their muscles, successfully delaying pipeline projects on both sides of the border. Indications are that this effort is becoming more organized and may play a larger role in infrastructure decisions across the continent.

Tribal action is behind the delays encountered by Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Tribes are demanding more consultation and, in some cases, opposing expansion of energy infrastructure altogether.